Do-it-yourself sliding doors on rollers - saving space and ease of use

A common everyday situation: an interior door is needed, but there is nowhere to open it, furniture interferes. And you can’t throw away the furniture, and the door is very necessary. And here comes the idea to hide it in the wall. When necessary, she leaves from there and blocks the doorway. It is necessary to open - the door again leaves the wall or, at least, along the wall. The door works and does not interfere with anyone, and nothing interferes with it. Such a miracle is called - a sliding door on rollers. With a great desire and some skill, you can do it yourself.

Varieties of sliding doors on rollers

Under the general name "sliding doors on rollers" there is a very large number of constructive and design options. In addition, the materials from which they are made differ. The shape is rectangular, arched, radius. According to the design, sliding, sliding, folding are distinguished. Their sizes may correspond to the standards, or they may differ greatly. And they are made from completely different materials.

A parallel sliding door consists of one or more leaves moving parallel to a vertical surface. These doors have very good sound insulation, reliability and durability. Sliding-folding models (accordions) are made of several sections.

There is also a cascading type of sliding doors, when the doors are assembled into blocks and move out of there as needed.

PHOTO: srbu.ru

Advantages and disadvantages

Sliding doors have both advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is obvious - a sliding door does not require more space than the doorway. The disadvantages include some design complexity, but this complexity is the price for compactness. There is another drawback to the accordion design: the door is not airtight. Being closed, it still lets in sounds and smells. Knowing this, it is more used as an element for designating the zoning boundary.

How to choose materials

Sliding doors are made from a variety of materials.

canvas

Natural wood has a very wide range of applications. Simple doors are also made of wood, which are needed only for the sake of fulfilling their main function - to block the doorway, and luxurious ones, which are an interior decoration. It will not be difficult for many men to make a door leaf frame from wooden slats of a suitable section and veneer with plywood or hardboard.

Technological material are MDF boards. They are easily sawn, drilled, milled. When working with them, one must not forget about the weight of the final result, but MDF is suitable for harmonious installation in any style of interior design.

Tempered glass should be handled by professionals, this material is not for amateur DIYers. Glass can be completely transparent or frosted, light or colored. It can have smooth or embossed patterns. The door leaf can be completely flat, but if necessary, it can be given a radius shape.

Doors created from a combination of materials look spectacular. The main thing at the same time is to show artistic taste and understanding of the technological compatibility of materials. For the manufacture of the frame, you can use metal, wood, plastic, and cover or fill the frame with glass, mirror, plexiglass. When choosing a material, you need to think not only about the beauty of the product, but also about how it matches the chosen design.

accessories

The concept of "fittings" includes everything that is attached to the door leaf: handles, latches, locks - and all this is only in a recessed version. The rollers and all their equipment are also accessories. It is of great importance in creating the appearance of the door. Its installation should be carried out in accordance with the accompanying instructions.

Self-manufacturing of a door with a top rail installation

This option is considered the simplest for independent execution. Naturally, it is assumed that the guide rail and the set of rollers are not made by hand, but bought.

Tools and materials

Of course, the first step is to prepare the door leaf. It must exactly match the doorway. When performing finishing work, platbands and a decorative plate will be required. To organize the movement of the door, a roller mechanism is needed. There are many different designs designed for different sizes and weights of doors. This issue should be resolved in consultation with specialists at the stage of designing the door.

The rollers will roll along the guide rail. It is also needed and must be compatible with rollers. When buying a rail, it is necessary to take into account the direction of door opening. You will need a variety of fasteners. Their appearance depends on the selected fittings.

It is especially important to choose the right roller mechanism and accessories. They must withstand the weight of the door leaf, otherwise the structure simply will not hold it and will break.

PHOTO: 169.ru

PHOTO: stroyday.ru

The tool for this work will require a simple one: an electric drill and a screwdriver, a simple screwdriver and pliers. You may need a hacksaw with a metal blade. If the scope of work includes the manufacture of a door leaf, then it is necessary to prepare a carpentry tool.

For the manufacture of the frame, you will need wooden blocks with a section of 20-30 by 40-50 mm, hardboard or plywood of the right size. Just first you need to decide how the door will look. Variants with the original design may require a different configuration or design.

To attach the upper rail, you need a wooden beam with a section of approximately 50 x 70 mm. The rail to the beam must be fixed with self-tapping screws 80 mm long. And you need one roller to install on the floor to fix the vertical position of the door leaf. For decorative trim, platbands are required, and for the door itself, recessed handles.

Size calculation

If it is planned that the door leaf will move along the wall and “cover” the doorway, then the dimensions of the door leaf should exceed the dimensions of the opening by about 10 cm in each direction and in height.

Door block manufacturing

Door leaf manufacturing is mainly carpentry work. If the issue of the design of the door is resolved and the materials for its manufacture are selected, drawings are developed, all the details should be made according to the drawings. Then put them on a large workbench in accordance with the assembly drawing and check how they fit together. You can even temporarily fasten them and check the corners and shape of the product. If everything is in order, the frame of the door leaf can be assembled completely, and then the frame coating and design finishes can be carried out.

Mounting

If the door leaf has already been made and the size corresponds to the doorway, then the whole work can be represented in three stages. The first will be the installation of the rollers on the upper end of the door, the second stage is the installation of the upper rail in its place, the third stage is the final one.

While the guide rail is not yet fixed in place, you can try how it rolls on rollers. If it sticks, you need to find out the cause and eliminate it. After that, you can put the upper rail in its place and start the rollers into the groove.

The guide rail must be attached to a wooden beam, which is previously attached to the wall above the doorway. Its length, like the length of the rail, must be at least twice the width of the doorway. This work should be done by two people. The rail, screwed to the beam, must be “rolled” onto the rollers and all this stuff should be lifted to the place where the beam will be strengthened. And make a mark on the wall with a pencil. But at the same time, make sure that there is a gap of 5–7 mm between the lower edge of the door and the floor.

In order not to keep it on your hands up all the time, you can put a bar 5–7 mm thick under the lower edge of the door. Align the position of the beam according to the level. To a concrete wall, the timber must be fastened to dowels, to a less solid wall - to anchor bolts. Stoppers should be installed along the edges of the guide rail, and a flag roller should be installed below on the floor at the edge of the opening to fix the vertical position of the door. After that, you can close the beam with a decorative overlay and finish the finish.

How to make a door on the upper and lower guide rail with your own hands

Doors with two rails (upper and lower) are a little more difficult to make. The rollers are also installed in two rows - above and below, but different. The lower rollers are supporting, the door “rolls” on them. The upper rollers guide, thanks to them the door is always in a vertical position. This design of the system has a high degree of rigidity, it is not afraid of random shocks, it can even be shaken without causing harm.

A feature of this option is the presence of a strict requirement for parallel installation of the upper and lower rails. The two-rail version is less critical to the weight of the door. Now the door will rest on the rollers with its weight. And there is no danger that the fastening of the rollers will come off.

The groove in the floor is a household waste collector. It needs to be cleaned regularly. The most correct thing is to use this option in cabinets, but sometimes the absence of a threshold is a more important argument.

What do you need to work

For work, you need about the same as for installing the door on one upper rail. The guide rail in this case does not experience any load, it simply fixes the vertical position of the door leaf. The guide rail itself and the top rollers are naturally of a different design. The lower rail experiences a vertical load pressing against the floor. Its task is to ensure movement in a given direction.

Preparatory stage

The supporting lower rail is installed in a place specially prepared for it in the floor. The length of this rail groove and the lower rail itself must be at least twice the width of the opening. If the door is double-leaf, then the length of the rail is selected taking into account the travel of the two wings. If it is not deepened below the floor level, then you get a threshold that everyone will stumble over.

Assembling the door block and fitting fittings

First of all, support rollers are attached to the lower end of the door leaf, and guide rollers are installed in the upper part of the door. It is necessary to assemble and mount them on the door strictly according to the instructions.

Handles and locks are also installed in the door leaf. They must be recessed. The lower rail is mounted in the groove made in the floor. All operations must be performed strictly following the accompanying instructions. After that, you can try to install one door leaf in place.

Installation

Installation begins with the installation of the lower rollers. Then you need to check how the guide rail “rolls” on them. If everything is in order, then the upper rollers are installed. The most important task is to accurately project the upper rail onto the lower one. Technologically, it is more convenient to do this if you first screw the upper rail into place, then project 3–4 points from it onto the floor with plumb lines with a weight, make marks on the floor and set them lower.

There is a constructive modification of sliding doors called "cassette". It can be both single-rail and double-rail. The essence of the design is that the door leaf, when opened, leaves for a special niche in the wall. The niche is slightly larger than the sash itself, so that it drives in without clinging. In fact, that niche can be made separately, and then attached to the wall.

How to avoid installation errors

In the manufacture of the cassette version, do-it-yourselfers often make mistakes. For example, they do not provide for an increase in the internal dimensions of the cassette compared to the external dimensions of the sash entering it. It is necessary to make a sufficient supply of free space for all dimensions of the door leaf and then transfer the resulting drawing to the material with the utmost accuracy. And when manufacturing in kind, do not allow the guide rails in the cassette to move relative to the outer part.

There is another difficult moment. If the cassette version is planned to be built into a load-bearing wall, then you will have to make a niche in it. And touching a load-bearing wall is prohibited by law. So first you need to think it over well and only then decide on the choice of option.

PHOTO: stroyday.ru

Buyers often do not correlate the weight of the door leaf and the load capacity of the mechanism, this usually happens when installing glass doors. The increased load quickly wears out the mechanism, and the device gradually stops working. You have to completely replace the system.

Errors are allowed during installation. The guides must be set horizontally as precisely as possible, otherwise the door will not move evenly. Curvature of the profile along which the rollers roll must not be allowed.

Rules of operation and care

Any mechanism requires competent maintenance. Rollers that spin on axles require lubrication. Otherwise, they will start to squeal and wear out quickly. The fastening screws must be checked with a screwdriver and, if necessary, tightened. Garbage from the lower rail must be removed every day.

Conclusion

Sliding doors are both beautiful and convenient. But before you decide to install them, you need to carefully consider everything and compare the possible options. Not all beautiful "Wishlist" is possible in the implementation.